Big Black Book Spring 2012: A Blue Portfolio

If there is a single color that defines masculine style, it is pink. (Kidding. Totally kidding. It's blue.) And yet to look at the many shades present in this season's best tailoring is to realize that blue — as a word, as a color, as a state of mind — contains multitudes, and one man's cobalt is another man's cerulean. Here we put names (and stories) to shades.PLUS: Big Black Book is on the iPad now — for five bucks!

Glacier Blue

Glacier Blue

Up in frostier arctic climes, where snow is packed densely on the icy peaks for years on end, glaciers have a tendency to give off a light-blue, slightly greenish glow. Hence glacier blue, a shade derived from the particular way snow-covered ice interacts with light waves on the red, yellow, and blue parts of the visible spectrum.

International Klein Blue

International Klein Blue

So named by Yves Klein, the French artist who was so enamored of this saturated hue that he patented the name. In one piece of performance art in 1960, a series of nude female models, each covered in IKB paint, took the stage in front of an audience and smeared their bodies on canvases. Today, thankfully, designers like Ravazzolo provide other opportunities to wear the color.